Welcome to week three of this new tradition of mine: Giving the nod to some of my Facebook friends for giving my spirits a lift and teaching me new things.
A reminder on what this is about: There’s a thing we do on Twitter called Follow Friday, where we list people we follow and suggest others do the same. I figured Facebook should have something similar, so here it is.
Let’s face it: There’s a lot of crap on Facebook. Some people might consider me part of the problem and unfriend me over it. That’s OK. My brand of insanity isn’t for everyone.
But there are a lot of giving folks on there as well; friends that lift the spirits and teach me something daily. Here are those who make the list this week:
Queue the mood music:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YzKLRM-pr4&fs=1&hl=en_US]
Ralphie Hubble: A fellow classmate at The Voke, Ralphie always lifts the spirits with his Friday lyrics for the soul. He was always one of the cooler kids in school, and that coolness has gotten cooler with time.
Jason-and Gretchen Grosky: Two former colleagues that always inspire me with posts about their family life. To me it doesn’t matter that Gretchen is a Pulitzer-Prize winning editor and that thanks to her The Eagle-Tribune still kicks plenty of ass. What’s important to me is that she always puts her family first, and it shows in just about all of her posts. When I need a reminder that work isn’t everything, I get caught up on the adventures of the Grosky household. Pretty freakin’ ironic, given that we met through work.
Stephanie Chelf: Another former Eagle-Tribuner, I never actually worked with her. She came along after I left. She gets a mention because in her latest job, one of her accounts is an organization that’s near and dear to me: The International OCD Foundation. Given my struggles with OCD, the organization has been a valuable resource. And I learned about it from her. 
Mary Ann Davidson: She’s the chief security officer for Oracle, and that’s how I met her, but the reason I love being a Facebook friend is that she is an enormously spiritual person whose Faith rubs off on me. I also enjoy keeping track of her surfing adventures in Hawaii and the exploits of her dog Thunder.
Michael Tranfaglia: I’ve been friends with this guy for many, many years. We met in the North Shore Community College smoking room in 1989, and haven’t been able to shake each other since then. He’s one of the few people who know how to use sarcasm effectively. It’s a complicated art, and if done wrong it’ll blow up in your face. The man knows what he’s doing. He’s also been a good friend since day one.
Stacey Scutellaro Cotter: Another longtime friend, she is also Sean Marley’s cousin, which earns her a place in my heart for life. Her Facebook posts always reflect her love of friends and family, and I need to see that on days where I might be tempted to tell the world to go screw.
More to come next week!